David Sidebottom started his current role as Transport Focus’s Director in June 2011. He initially started working at Transport Focus in January 2006 as a Senior Stakeholder Manager before being promoted to the post of Bus Passenger Director in January 2010. David now heads up the planning and delivery of Transport Focus’s national bus, coach and tram passenger representation duties as well as being responsible for the organisation’s wider stakeholder relations across the north of England, Scotland and Wales. Prior to this, he spent over 11 years representing the needs and interests of energy consumers in the north west of England where he was regional director of energywatch, the gas and electricity consumer council.
Transport Focus has been promoting the interests of bus passengers in England, outside of London, since 2010. We listen to what passengers want from bus services and what they want to be done better. We use this knowledge to influence decisions on behalf of passengers, securing improvements and enabling a better understanding of what’s needed so that more people give bus a go.
With local authorities under pressure to meet climate goals and open up access to employment and education, delivering a bus service that meets people's needs will be key. People will only choose the bus over car if it is an attractive alternative by being more convenient or better value, but preferably both.
Our latest survey of bus passenger satisfaction, Your Bus Journey, is now on the road with more than 35 local authority areas taking part in England and six regional partnerships in Scotland. The survey will have the views of more than 36,000 passengers and will be used to make the case for future improvements and identify good practice. This will help transport authorities, bus operators and governments to plan and invest in the things that matter most to current and future bus passengers.
This builds on the work we’re doing to help put passengers at the heart of the National Bus Strategy and the development and delivery of Bus Service Improvement Plans. By using Transport Focus research and policy insight we are giving local transport authorities and bus operators valuable consumer focused evidence.
Our expert advice can help provide best practice guidance on:
setting targets for journey times, reliability, improvements and customer satisfaction;
developing a Passenger Charter;
promoting the passenger interest in local bus partnerships;
guidance on putting together Enhanced Partnership Plans.
The team at Transport Focus is increasingly involved with a number of Enhanced Partnerships, supporting working groups to develop some of the outcomes to benefit passengers and more formal roles on partnership boards and passenger forums.
We’re pleased to see that more people are giving bus a go thanks to the £2 bus fare cap. While we know value for money has always been a priority for passengers, many are facing particular financial challenges at the moment. Our latest research shows more than one in 10 people are using the bus to travel more, more than four in 10 thought the new fare might save them money and 80 per cent thought it would help with the cost of living. More than four in 10 said £2 bus journeys were replacing ones they would have made by car.
The role of the Bus Centre of Excellence is important to encourage initiatives like this to both benefit today’s bus passengers and help make bus travel attractive to tomorrow’s users. As part of my role on the advisory board I’ll be able to use the years of experience and evidence that we have at Transport Focus to ensure passengers’ views are being considered throughout the sector. The future of buses must have the passenger front and centre. By bringing the sector together, the centre of excellence will be able to achieve great things for bus passengers.